OK I'm using Kununtu Fiesty 7.04 VIA onboard sound and a paying customer with call out AND a call in number.

With 1.3.0.53 after about a half hour if some one called me forget answering the all. The CPU will max and you can't hear each other so send them to voicemail restart Skype and call them back. Same for calling out reset Skype.

I was so thrilled to hear Skype is still developing the linux software. So I try 1.4.0.64 and then 1.0.4.74. First the UI sucks Please bring back the one in 1.3 Please. I still have audio problems. 1.4.0.64 seems to not wig out as much as 1.4.0.74, but at random times you'll be talking and it will sound like someone is crunching paper on the other end but they can still hear me. The only fix is to restart Skype.

So thank you for continuing development on this for linux users, but it still isn't as stable as say Gizmo project but I'm still your customer.....for now and hope we have a long relationship.
Alvin

I basically disagree with everything said in the above post. I'm running a fresh install of Fedora 7 with KDE.

The UI in the new version is much better. I love it.

I've never had many audio problems with skype 1.3 or 1.4.

Continue working on it! It's getting better!

As GIZMO!? I've been to hell and back with Gizmo on both Linux and Windows. Every couple of days its own program corrupted the install and I had to re-install it. I gave up. Worst stability on any program I've used in my entire life. Maybe Gizmo just hates me.

Here is what we, the historical society of cappy-chan's brain, believe what happened:

Gizmo: ARGHHH CAPPY-CHAN I HATE YOU!
Me: *cry* And I left skype to try you! I wish I had never met you!
Gizmo: ahaha but it is too late now, I have become one with your window's regisssstry
Me: Aha! Or is!?
Gizmo: NOOOOO NOT THE UNINSTALLLLLLL
Me: I <3 you skype, will u marry me? I'm sorry I betrayed you. It was an honest mistake.
Skype: Hello, Welcome to Skype call testing service ...
Me: Oh, I love you! Hold me! Hold me!
Skype: "Oh, I love you! Hold me! Hold me!" - If you are able to hear your own voice ...
Me: Oh skype .... <3
/love making ensues

I think he was talking about some program, not a mogwai that would turn your house into a gremlins infested nest.
Anyways, I'll take a wild guess here but I also bet he was refering to his linux install more than windows.
From the content of your message, you do seem to be just back from hell, take it easy

As Ryan as asking everywhere else: What are exact things that you think suck in the UI? Outline bullet by bullet.



Can you tell exact card name (integrated VIA?) and alsa version you are using?
I'm sure I can fix this, as audio support is still work in progress and is constantly improving.

Well I think I outlined why I don't like the UI in a another post


but I can live with a bad UI if the sound didn't bomb out in the middle of the conversation. Due to my disability Skype is the only easy way I can access a phone that's why I bought a call in number (that I renewed this year) and call out.

On the sound lspci shows
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
and my alsamixer -h shows
AlsaMixer v1.0.13

I am not trying to be a butt on here, I just think you had a good UI to begin with and don't see a need to change. I do see a real need to fix what's broke (sound problems) Heck I'm not even asking for video like everyone else does.
Alvin

Adding a couple big buttons should be dead easy. I'll see what can be done here.



Thanks Alvin. I think I start to see a clear pattern with VIA hardware, so I'll take a stab at it.

Your welcome, I really do want Skype to work.
Alvin

i've been using skype since the early 1.2 days. these are the problems i experienced with 1.4.0.74 static, on a new account, just in trying to set up the account (ie, before even adding a contact). i am limiting my points to issues not mentioned in the README file. (a brief note: with so much unimplemented or broken, why is there not a link still provided for an older, more stable version?) here are the issues and commentary, in approximately chronological order:

0) oh no, NOT the 'find the exact version of libstdc++ required by something obscure' game again.
0a) the google-earth libstdc++ did it this time. the ones that normally worked (openoffice) didn't this time.
0b) may i suggest that the EXACT version of ALL of the libraries, and ALL their dependencies, etc, be included in some kind of required-software-versions document?
0c) further, might i suggest for the static binaries that if you require microversion libraries, that those be linked statically as well? this has been a constant source of aggravation. if you strip out all unused symbols, the binary size shouldn't increase that much. this has been a problem in every version of skype i have used, and its aggravating to have to figure out incredibly complex LD_LIB prefixes to make skype work.

1) what happened to the text menubar at the top?
1a) oh, there's a + button on the bottom now. that's weird, but allowable.
1b) that's a contact add! how do i set this up?
1c) oh, the SECOND icon, the one that looks greyed out (inactive) and went unnoticed for 5 minutes, THAT'S the main menu.
1d) so, not only are the top menus removed (first difference from most UIs of this type), the icon placed improperly (main buttons always go on a corner, usually top/bottom left), but the icon is nearly unnoticable in its location and bears no resemblance, as far as I can tell, to any symbol, logo, or mark ever used to indicate 'main menu here' nor towards anything used by Skype.

2) oke, so we found the main menu. theres an 'about' screen but no 'help'. not necessarily the smartest move after changing the entire interface, yes?

3) yay, we finally got the options menu!
3a) although there's no help icons here, either.
3b) in fact, the only even remotely helpful text came from an almost random scattering of tooltips. almost none of the new options or icons had any kind of explanation.

4) the 'general' menu looks different.
4a) because everything is greyed out! why are the most basic presence and notification options inactive?

5) the 'privacy' menu itself is mostly oke.
5a) except that contact-request popup moved to 'general' for unknown reasons, and is greyed.
5b) and what happened to the blocked users list?
5ba) oh, it's now its own main menu category. and everything in it is inactive. not only is the move puzzling, but why would blocking people ever be inactive? this makes no sense from a privacy or safety viewpoint.
5bb) and there is still no 'block everyone EXCEPT those on the contact list' option.

6) there are a LOT of notifications. these mostly seem oke, although i'm amused at how a 'login failed' sound could work with a user with multiple accounts. which sound to use when the account is unknown?
6a) however, lots of the notifications were greyed, again. this doesn't bother me as i find notifications to be useless, but what's the point of having all of this stuff just for it to be disabled?

7) it strikes me, while i'm writing this, that the deactivated options mostly relate to interaction with other users, and may therefore be a function of the empty contacts list.
7a) only the bugblatter beast of traal believes that just because you can't see them, they can't see you. i am fully aware that in most cases this is needlessly paranoid. the lack of enforcable privacy for newbies does not seem like a good way to promote the 'skype is safe' slogan.
7b) some people like to figure out and set up their environments before trying to interact with others in said places. no previous skype version that i have used limited setup. why the change?

8) preferred chat style is deactivated.
8a) what happened to the 'on incoming message...' and 'on incoming call..' options, for handling window raises and focus? or is that what 'pop-up notification' means?

9) call forwarding and voicemail are mostly greyed.
9a) wouldn't it have made more sense to, say, send an extra two bytes at login time for the current state of premium features and only include those in the main options list, combining all unpaid-for features in a single 'premium services' option (with appropriate links)? that would have been a good use of deactivation and unmapping, while wasting far less space and time.
9b) i have yet to find anything on the skype webpages explaining if/how one can use skype credits for local (ie, not international) calls. skypeout seems to have vastly changed without any explanation. i don't want a yearly plan, nor three months. i would like credit that won't expire so i can call people when my cell doesn't work, if and when that happens. one of the former advantages of skype, in my mind, was that it wasn't the telephone company; you only needed to pay when you wanted to interact with the analog ends of the phone system. now it seems a subscription is needed, instead of paying as you go, and even if you do pay, you lose it after an arbitrary (and short!) amount of time.
9c) inconsistency: i haven't set up or tested the sound devices yet, nor am i subscribed to voicemail, so why is there a default? it can be played but nothing else.

10) to my utmost surprise, sound worked perfectly on the first try.
10a) which is then pushed beyond the limit when the test call is not only useful, but works on the first try too!
10b) so far, this is the only improvement, and it's a big one. i don't know if it can keep connections clean yet, but getting and keeping sound working used to be a major pain, and voice quality used to seem much lower. you did great on this one. :)

11) advanced options no longer have the 'calls' submenu. while there is now the call forwarding menu and the voicemail menu and all sorts of 'notifications', actual call handling doesn't seem to be around, unless there was something in that call-test-window.
11a) there is no 'no proxy' option. what happens if automagic detection gets things wrong?

12) i have less than no clue what 'public API' is for, as there is no documentation and everything is greyed. public indeed.

13) what does that little clock thing on the right, next to the credits count, do? i keep clicking on it but it only makes the 'test call' user disappear.and 'show contacts' appear at the bottom. what is going on? does it just hide the users list and put a white space? i am very confused.

14) with a maximum limit of 200 contacts, why is 'search' the top item in the main window? do people usually lose their contacts so often that this should be above their own names, in place of something useful? considering how many new useless icons there now are, why was one of the few things that made sense as an icon turned into text?

15) what is supposed to be in the box that appears when you click on your name? its just a text entry without explanation.
15a) this is the camel-destruction straw. with all the glitter going on, one would think that a simple SCROLLBAR would be possible. no. for all those with screens smaller than 715 pixels high, say goodbye to your profiles. those with tablets, umpc's, wearables, or almost anyone else interested in the skype zones idea: you can either have your computers be light, or you can have them be skype usable, but you can't do both. even in this release, nothing else has been SO poorly implemented as to make the entire program useless. forget having enough information to be able to add new contacts if you have a new account, or forget being able to change your information if you've already switched.

16) from an accessibility standpoint, this release is entirely worthless. from a usability standpoint, the phone company is less aggravating. this is particularly sad since it seems that the code involved with the actual POINT of skype (communication) has drastically improved (skypeout excepted), but the UI style prevents the Skype substance from ever emerging.


and so if i may close with my opinion on what would most improve skype: i am not so naive as to think that skype's code will be opensourced anytime soon, but releasing a closed source lib and clean API to ONLY handle talking the protocol (and no sneaky OSCAR/TOC shtuff) and allowing users to write their own UIs would be just as good, if not better. not only would this free up resources devoted to something skype is abysmal at (UI) for better use improving their good tech, and not only would it create much happier current and former users (people can either write an interface how they want it, or just wait two months for 30 GNOME/KDE/GTK/QT warring factions to do it for them in, at most, 5 different ways), but it could also significantly help certain groups (eg visual or mobility impaired), who could both gain a lot from and give a lot to skype.

-elf

I agree with your post completely. I use the new interface since the first alpha, and I still have to think for a minute before doing anything in Skype. Its current quirks just make it unintuitive. I also adopt wholeheartedly with your future recommendation. The only advantage I see in keeping the UI development at Skype HQ is if they want to use ads bundled in the GUI (ick!). This idea of releasing a binary blob of "Skype engine" can keep everybody happy. I wonder what the developers would say to that.

Very interesting read. Thanks for the feedback! Bits are taken into account for further improving Skype for Linux.

Man I wish I had your talent with words. I stand in silent admiration.
Alvin

My review of Skype for Linux in less than 1000 words:

erm.. edited i will get killed by posting like this


My point of view: Skype will do everything for users, that is for users paying money And why Skype Linux development has somewhat progressed??? Because Ubuntu is becoming more and more popular.